A Labour activist who claimed Jewish “Trump fanatics” were making up some of the allegations of antisemitism in the party has been re-elected to the national executive committee (NEC) after a ballot of members.
Peter Willsman was the last of the nine elected, with 70,321 votes, just ahead of Eddie Izzard on 67,819, and will retain his position on the party’s ruling body.
In a sign of the depth of Jeremy Corbyn’s support among the Labour membership, the first eight were all members of the grassroots group Momentum’s slate. The poll was topped by Yasmine Dar, a Manchester councillor, with 88,176 votes.
Willsman’s success came despite the release in July of a recording of his comments about the antisemitism row, which resulted in him being dropped by Momentum from its list of recommended candidates.
In the recording, made at a previous NEC meeting, Willsman claimed there was little solid evidence of antisemitism in the party. “And some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump – they are Trump fanatics and all the rest of it,” he said.
Willsman was speaking shortly after a group of rabbis had warned about the scale of anti-Jewish feeling in Labour. Willsman said in response: “We should ask the 70 rabbis: ‘Where is your evidence of severe and widespread antisemitism in this party?’”
Momentum, which supports Jeremy Corbyn, swiftly dumped Willsman from its list of nine candidates, saying his remarks were “deeply insensitive and inappropriate” and that its candidates should be held to a higher standard.
Willsman subsequently apologised and said he would refer himself to equalities training “so I can better understand how to approach discussions of such issues in a respectful way”.
Ballot papers were sent out around 26 July, Labour said, with Willsman listed as one of the so-called JC9 Momentum-backed slate. The recording emerged on 30 July.
Many Labour members vote in internal elections immediately, so a proportion of the ballots cast will have been before Willsman’s comments were made public. Voting closed at the end of August.
Speaking after his re-election, Willsman thanked those who voted for him. “I see my job to be supporting our leader, JC, my friend for 41 years,” he said. “He will lead a Labour government that will fundamentally address the economic and social problems on a scale not seen since the postwar Attlee government.
“This is why the rich and powerful spend so much time trying to undermine him. Sadly, some MPs, elected by Labour voters, seem willing to help the rich and powerful.”
The eight individuals ultimately supported by Momentum were comfortably re-elected, including Claudia Webbe, a former adviser to Ken Livingstone, who was second on 83,797, and the Momentum founder, Jon Lansman, who was third on 83,702.
Chris Williamson, the Corbynite Labour MP, said: “Bish-bash-bosh. Despite the best efforts of the haters and the smearers, it’s a clean sweep … Yes, nine, in Labour’s NEC election. This proves that together we are strong.”
Such was the dominance of Momentum-backed candidates that, aside from Izzard, no one else gained anything like as many votes. The longstanding NEC member Ann Black, an independent leftwinger, received 45,566 votes and came 13th.
Turnout among Labour’s 550,000 strong membership was estimated at 26%, on the assumption that party members used all their nine votes. Willsman received just under 5,000 voters fewer than the eighth-ranked candidate, Navendu Mishra, a trade union organiser with Unison.
Willsman has been one of Corbyn’s closest allies on the NEC and is the secretary of the longstanding hard-left Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, the original vehicle for Bennite campaigners in the 1980s who demanded party reform.
He has sat on the NEC, off and on, for many years, and was one of four who were successfully elected to the body in 1998 alongside Islington barrister Liz Davies despite attempts by allies of Tony Blair to prevent them.
A spokesperson for the Jewish Labour Movement said the group noted Willsman’s election and he should nevertheless face a disciplinary investigation because of his recorded remarks. “It does appear to be one rule for friends of Jeremy and one rule for others,” they said.
“Others remain under investigation whilst Willsman faces no further action for insulting community rabbis representing hundreds of thousands of British Jews.”
One of those elected to the NEC, Webbe, who also chairs Labour’s disputes panel and the party’s working group on antisemitism, said that Willsman should be congratulated, not criticised. “Pete immediately recognised the difficulty of how he expressed himself and he apologised and saw how it could be perceived. He immediately apologised. We should draw a line and he should be congratulated on his election,” she told the Guardian.
“The membership have listened to the arguments about anti-semitism and have still voted for Pete Willsman to be a member of the NEC. We must welcome that,” she added.
Richard Angell, director of the centre-left party group, Progress, said that the election of Willsman showed there was “institutional antisemitism in the party” and said there was a “real need for action. However, with Willsman at the top table, that is less likely to happen”.
Momentum said the election of the eight candidates it backed amounted to “a fantastic victory for ordinary grassroots members”.
